The Amazing Rapunzel
by n00dles
Summary: Rapunzel is abducted by the Ravagers and gains new superpowers! She's about to go on a ride fighting old and new foes. Mysteriously, someone else was released by the same group after being held in suspended animation: Merida. My 2nd story in a hypothetical Disney mega-verse. (Tangled, Brave, Marvel Cinematic Universe)
1. Abducted

**A/N: I'm continuing the whole idea of writing crossovers in a "unified Disney mega-verse" that contains basically everything it owns.**

**For my second story, I'm gonna try my hand at fitting Rapunzel and Merida into the grand scheme of things, super-powering Rapunzel (her powers were mostly inspired by the Spiderman and Rapunzel fanart, hence the title) and buffing Merida to a comic peak human. It starts post-Frozen (Rapunzel is assumed to be 21 years old). Normally, any crossover between Brave and Tangled would involve ignoring the time period difference, but since anything Disney owns is fair game for me, I've found a way to stay true to that using a little bit of Guardians of the Galaxy. Here goes…**

* * *

><p>Rapunzel and Eugene were relieved to see the freak winter storm end in Arendelle. Just when Eugene thought there couldn't be anything more magical than Rapunzel's hair, he witnessed a grand display of power by Rapunzel's oldest cousin.<p>

Rapunzel never got why Anna and Elsa's parents would want to separate them after their childhood accident. The fact that their isolation perpetuated the very kind of fear they were trying to prevent bothered her, and the events that took place were frighteningly astonishing. Yet, she admired the good side of Elsa's ice powers once she learned to control them.

"Ya know, I'm starting to wonder if the Queen isn't the only cousin of yours that has special powers," Eugene remarked as they walked towards the docks.

"Anna, you mean?" Rapunzel answered, "Well we'll see about that, but man can she do some suspect things. One moment she's tripping over herself, the next she's jumping around like a super ninja and punching people off ships."

"Your family gets more magical the more I get to know 'em."

"Eugene…"

Eugene made his way back to their ship while Rapunzel ventured towards the main square to have a final chat with Anna. Despite all of the events on Elsa's coronation day, they were glad they could return the favor after Anna and Elsa's parents died trying to attend Rapunzel's wedding.

"The Queen would like to thank you for your visit. She apologizes for all of the hardships she caused," Kai greeted them as Rapunzel came back.

"Well I know the feeling," Rapunzel sighed.

"I've checked the ship," their captain told them, "Luckily it didn't sustain any damage from the ice."

"So we're good to go?" Eugene asked.

"Perfectly."

"I'm…that's amazing."

* * *

><p>They would spend several days out on the water before reaching Corona. The trip was long enough to require a stop halfway through along the southern coastline to allow the captain to rest.<p>

"Looks like we got the flames," Eugene congratulated himself that night.

With a fire started, they tore through their saved meal on that beach, exhausted from all the traveling.

"I still can't believe what we all went through. It just reminded me more and more of being in that tower," Rapunzel contemplated.

"You've got me now. I will always be there when you need me," Eugene said.

"I know, it's just…that's the darkest I've ever felt in my life. I never thought years of isolation could lead to causing a freak blizzard. I can't imagine having Elsa's powers."

"Just be glad you don't have them."

Rapunzel sighed. "I know, but still I-"

"You get the feels."

Maximus neighed in concern.

"Oh don't worry Max. She has control of the powers now at least."

They sat silent next to the campfire and continued to toss more wood in.

"What was going on with Hans?" Eugene asked after a few minutes.

"Prince Hans of the Southern Isles? I heard he was plotting to kill Elsa and take the throne."

"Excuse me? He wanted to do _that_? I thought Anna decked him cause he turned out to be a jerk."

"Well he is. He's also a power hungry manipulation master who tricked all of us. I know my 'mother' brainwashed me for eighteen years but that puts him on the next level."

"Sure does."

They chatted and chilled a bit longer before they noticed a bright light peering through the forest trees behind the beach and began to hear a distant whirring noise.

"What's going on?" Rapunzel gasped as she approached it.

"I wouldn't go there I were you," Eugene warned her.

"Eugene! How bad could it be? After everything we've been through?"

Rapunzel cautiously made her way towards the light, following the sound. Eugene chased after her.

"Whoa, what the-"

She entered a clearing and came across a large, levitating vessel illuminated with numerous lights. It had to be floating at least two stories off the ground and seemed to cover nearly half an acre. Rapunzel moved closer as the unknown flying object approached her.

"Rapunzel!" Eugene shouted at her.

The UFO centered itself right over her and activated something that forced her into it. To Eugene, it appeared as if a stream of light activated from its belly for a few seconds and made her disappear.

"Oh no! Nooooo!"

* * *

><p>Rapunzel wasn't sure how long she was unconscious by the time she woke up, but it was clear to her she was onboard the UFO that captured her. She was glad to see Pascal with her unharmed, but she felt something different inside herself and couldn't quite put a finger on it. It was as if she could see, feel, and hear everything at an elevated level.<p>

"What's happening to me?" Rapunzel muttered to Pascal.

She examined the extraterrestrial surroundings. The room was well lit and contained comfortable beds including the one she woke up on. The walls were plain metal, and it was filled with strange and complex devices. She could only assume it was some kind of lab or medical room.

"Just when I thought things wouldn't get any more interesting."

The place smelled horribly, and her newfound senses made it worse for her. Whoever the aliens were, they were definitely a bit crude. She detected their voices near the front of the ship.

"I hope the experiments will turn out successful, Yondu. There's a reason why we were chosen to help him carry them out," one of them said.

"Well when you got an Infinity Stone there's nothin' better I'd like to do then gain somethin' outta it," Yondu assured him.

"I still don't get it," a third voice inquired.

"Have you forgotten what we do? We're letting him doing this under Xandar's noses. They ain't never gonna allow anything like this. Ya, see, I realized some time ago that doing these kinds of things gets us more than the usual, and I know y'all looove more."

"I guess using Terran-like people from an isolated Terra-like planet as lab rats help too," the first one remarked.

"It sure does. When we send 'em back home, they can't snitch on us. If our lovely scientist gets living proof he's successful we'll get quite a hefty sum. He's been tellin' me this one's unprecedented."

"Any reason why he wanted her in particular?" the first one asked.

"He ain't tellin' me."

"I'll take it anyways," the third one replied, "Infinity Stone? Man this is looking up! I just hope he knows what he's doing."

"Well see that's kind of the thing about this," the first one said, "From what we know about him he can manipulate the stone but hasn't ever done anything like this with it. He managed to develop his own version of that Super-Soldier Serum but this is completely different. Keep your fingers crossed."

Rapunzel backed away from the voices. Why were her alien abductors speaking her language? Who were they and what did they want with her? What was an Infinity Stone? What was that serum they were talking about? Who or what is Xandar?

She explored the rest of the room. It appeared that it was the place where those "experiments" were carried out. She was amazed at how her abductors harnessed electricity. What was only a theory to her people was a fact of life in the ship's environment. Knowing this, she was careful not to accidentally hit a wrong switch.

She believed no one else was present there with her until she came across a pod containing a petite human female with shoulder length curly red hair. The mystery girl had to be close to Rapunzel's age, and seemed to be in good physical shape. She was dressed in a mostly green outfit, one that was very dated compared to what Rapunzel was used to. The advanced, alien setting certainly was the last place she expected to find someone or something _behind_ her times.

"Hey?" Rapunzel waved her hand. She didn't even flinch.

Rapunzel curiously pushed random surrounding buttons and strangely broke them, causing the pod to short out and open.

"Whoa."

Perhaps she wasn't supposed to push them, but at least she got it open. She tapped the mystery girl on the cheek, attempting again to see if she would wake up. Nothing happened.

"Hmmm…"

Rapunzel looked around the pod to see if there were any clues as to who she was. The labels on the pod were as surprisingly readable to her as the aliens' dialogue, but didn't get a name until she turned her eyes towards a nearby wall, which contained a glowing picture of the young woman and her name: _"Merida"_.

"What the-"

Before Rapunzel had any time to react to what she just saw, she felt a needle being plunged to the right side of her neck, causing her to fall unconscious again.


	2. Trying to figure it out

**A/N: I'm assuming the Little Mermaid theory is used here and Anna and Elsa's parents were going to Rapunzel's wedding. The Tarzan theory contradicts this.**

* * *

><p>Rapunzel regained consciousness and found herself alone in what appeared to be the middle of the same forest she was abducted. The sun was out. Was it all a dream?<p>

The enhanced senses were still there. She could see everything crystal clear, and could feel every detail of the grass below her. The noises of every bird and insect close and far from her, practically everything coming out of Pascal, and even distant human voices could be heard. It wasn't a dream. Whoever abducted her somehow changed her.

The other one onboard the UFO continued to intrigue her. She could only assume Merida was from her planet and was experimented on as she was. Their motives for abducting and experimenting on them were evidently pretty deep.

She followed the voices, hoping to reorient herself. Eventually, she came across a familiar establishment: The Snuggly Duckling.

"Thank god, I'm actually-aarrggh!"

Suddenly, she was grabbed and apprehended by the Stabbington brothers.

"You, princess! You and Flynn are gonna pay!" one of them yelled in her ear, "We had a deal with your mother!"

"She's not my mother! And it's not my problem!"

Expecting to struggle, Rapunzel instead broke free of their hold quite easily, causing all three of them to pause. As the brothers went after her again, her reflexes became elevated to the same level her senses were, allowing her to momentarily perceive the world in slow motion. She got inside the reach of one of them and elbowed him very quickly. The second tried to grab her immediately afterwards, only to be thrown himself. Both were sent flying a phenomenal distance. The first had to have been nearly forty feet away from her, and the second nearly fifty.

"Oh my god! I am sooo, so sorry!" she apologized, "Are you two alright?"

"Get away from us!"

The Stabbingtons pulled themselves up and got away. Rapunzel ran behind the pub and sat down in the dirt. It was clear that her abductors did more than just elevate her senses. She shouldn't have been able to beat up the Stabbingtons that easily. Indeed, she always knew she was strong most of her life as she had to live with her supernaturally long hair, but not _that _strong.

Rapunzel dropped her head between her knees as tears began coming out of her eyes, worrying she would hurt others unintentionally. She began to think her new powers would put her in the same place Elsa was. The Queen of Arendelle lost control and wreaked havoc. She didn't want to cause the same to happen. When she lifted her head back up, she was relieved to see her surroundings remained unchanged, except for one thing.

"My hair!"

Her original long blonde hair suddenly came back, prompting her to dart away from the wall.

"How?"

It then disintegrated quickly in a series of yellow sparkles, causing her to revert back to her short brunette hair.

"That's weird. Could I get it back again?"

Concentrating only on the thought of getting the long hair back, she got it once more. Her hair glowed as it grew to seventy feet in a split second and turned blonde. She then made it disappear just as quickly.

"Wait a minute…"

It seemed she could have her long hair whenever she wanted, as long as she stayed in reasonable emotional control. Gladly knowing this, she ventured back into the forest.

"You might wanna hang on tight, Pascal."

She wanted to get a good idea of what changed in her, so there would likely be a few accidents. First up was strength. She wanted to see how much she could lift. Spotting a twenty-foot tall deciduous tree, she attempted to pull it straight from the ground, and did it with low effort. After going motionless in awe, she wanted to test how far she could throw it. She noticed she would do fine with just one arm rather than both, albeit a bit clumsily. With all of her might, she tossed it. The tree soared through the air and landed a great distance away, so far that it was almost out of sight. She was much, much stronger than she looked.

Theoretically, if she had super strength, she would be able to run at high speeds and jump higher as well. She attempted a super jump, shooting up high enough to get look over the trees.

"Whoaaa!"

She thought she was going to break something on her landing, but was reassured when she landed back on two feet without much pain.

"I guess I'm also unbreakable, I hope."

She checked for bleeding and broken bones, but she was fine.

Next up was the hair, as it would be a different experience using it than before. To see if she could use her long hair without being burdened by it, she wanted to know how quickly she could get it out, grab something, get rid of it, and over again. The tree branches in the forest were to be used as test beds. Amazingly, she found she had total control just reaching out with her thoughts. She could go from short brunette to long blonde at any length she desired, wherever she desired, whenever she wanted. The first few times bringing it out she was moving it with incredible speed. It was one grab on a different branch immediately after another, and the in the appropriate lengths every time.

Feeling confident, she decided to approach the uprooted tree and grabbed it with her hair. She rapidly decreased her hair's length and physically pulled it at the same time. As the tree neared her she dodged and made her hair vanish, reverting it back to its short brunette state.

"Whoa!"

It was coming at her too fast.

Perhaps the most curious thing she tried, however, was an attempt to see how well she could swing with her hair, given everything else she learned about her new self. She climbed up onto the highest branch she could, summoned her hair, and grabbed the farthest branch away from her that was possible.

"Here it comes…"

Holding on with both hands she jumped off and swung through the air. When she reached other end she discarded the long hair and initiated a series of somersaults.

"Wahhhh!"

Back with her brunette hair, she accidentally slammed face first into the next tree and fell to the ground onto her back. It still wasn't enough to scathe her.

Rapunzel felt she gained a decent understanding of her powers and raced back to her kingdom. She got there faster than she ever thought she could without even breaking a sweat, and reckoned she was moving at several times the rate a horse could. Pascal managed to hang on during the duration of it despite the intense speed and air resistance.

She noticed everyone's shocked expressions as she crossed the bridge into the Kingdom. From their reactions she thought she must have been absent for a long time. They probably thought she was dead.

"Is it really you?" one the castle guards asked as she approached them.

"Of course it's me! Didn't Eugene tell you already? How long have I been gone?"

"Your majesty, you're more than three days _early_ as scheduled. How are you here?"

"I-I dunno. You're not gonna believe this, but I was abducted by aliens and somehow they dropped me off right near the Snuggly Duckling."

"Aliens? Like unidentified objects floating in the sky? That is all myths and legends. You can't be serious, can you?"

"How much myth and legend was that flower? Or my hair? Look, just escort me in, and I'll explain everything to my parents."

"Very well then."

Rapunzel entered the castle. She wasn't sure she could convince anyone of her experiences but she knew what she saw.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Rapunzel!"

They both gave her a hug.

"You're early," her mom remarked, "Where's Eugene?"

"Still on his way here, I think. Look, I don't expect you to believe me, but I was abducted by aliens."

"Aliens?"

"Just let me get the whole story out. While we spent a night on a beach to let our captain rest I noticed some strange lights coming from the forest behind us. He told me to stay back but I didn't listen. Curiosity got the best of me and those aliens, whoever they were, dragged me onboard their space ship. I woke up and heard a lot of strange things I didn't understand. They talked about experimenting on people and Infinity Stones. Then I looked over and saw someone else there with me, but she was out of it. All I know is that her name is Merida. Then they knocked me out again, and I woke up back near here."

Her parents stood still.

"Look, it's me," Rapunzel assured them.

"Of course you're our daughter. I don't believe you could make up something like that. Shocking, but it's the only explanation we have. How was Arendelle?"

"Oh my god. Here comes another long story. Ummm…well. The whole place kinda went under some snow."

"In the summer?"

"Elsa has ice and snow powers. She lost control."

"What?"

"They're tied to her emotions, I think. I guess growing up in isolation with them and being that it was Coronation Day she'd become overly worked up to say the least. She put up a blizzard over the entire place and froze Anna's heart when she tried to get her to stop it, which would've frozen her to death if it were not for an act of true love. It wasn't a kiss, if you're wondering. She stopped Hans of the Southern Isles from killing Elsa which pretty much counts as true love. He wanted to kill her and marry Anna so he could take the throne. And then, Elsa regained control because of that and got rid of all the snow. We all celebrated and she did some non-harmful and wonderful things with her powers."

"Wait, so Anna saved herself, and the whole place with an act of true love? Did Hans really want to do all that to take throne? That's quite a story."

"It's crazy, I know, but hopefully Eugene can tell you more when he gets here."

Rapunzel went back to her room to give herself some alone time after everything that happened. A magically caused summer snowstorm was one thing, but being abducted by aliens made the former seem very normal in comparison.

She was overly cautious when opening her bedroom door. Never before had she exerted so much focus on such a simple task.

"Please stay on there. Please stay on there." She repeated that a few times.

"Rapunzel, your majesty," a voice said, "What's going on? How are you here?"

"Wilshire hey! I-I'm back early. Look, it's a long story that I don't expect you to believe."

"Oh come on Punz. You're the product of a magical flower. You of all people can tell us anything."

"Yeah, it's not like that. Look, eventually I'll make sure everyone knows the whole story, but right now, I need some space. I'm really burned out."

Wilshire left and Rapunzel calmly opened her door without yanking it off its hinges.

"Thank god," she muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>AQ: I know they're vaguely described in this chapter, but what do you think about Rapunzel's feats so far?**


	3. Going Vigilante

Rapunzel knew well of her superhuman-ness, but wanted to make sure she could carry herself in a normal fashion. She had to get used to operating as if she were a normal person.

"OK. First task: close the window curtains without destroying them," she told herself and Pascal her first night back.

She ever so gently pulled it a little bit over and stopped. Then she continued a little bit more. Then she stopped again, and then continued once more until it was all the way over.

"Yes! Yes! Plus one for me!" she shouted in glee.

Pascal reminded her she had more to do.

"Yeah, I know. I still have to get into bed. Ugh."

Staying in the same mindset, she was overly cautious, making sure she didn't pull the bed sheets right off and untuck them in one move. Pascal squealed impatiently.

"What? I'm doing it slowly for obvious reasons."

After nearly ten seconds the sheets were finally opened enough to allow her into the bed.

"Now pulling it back over…"

This time, she felt comfortable tucking in herself with half the time.

"Phew. Now if there was only a way to stop hearing all these noises."

Pascal crawled onto her nightstand to give her some room. Despite the enhanced senses, she did fall asleep after learning they were akin to muscle memory. Just as she learned only to use a tiny fraction of her enormous strength, she learned to tune the extra sounds out.

The next morning, Rapunzel impulsively pulled the bed sheets off…right off the bed.

"Great. I guess morning clumsiness just got a lot worse."

She got onto her feet and stretched herself out, making sure that she was in the right state to go about everything.

"OK Pascal, gotta brush my teeth."

Pascal squirmed.

"It's the morning. I wasn't fully awake when I did that," she assured him.

She was playing it safe, making sure she didn't accidentally break the shelf the toothbrush was on or crush the toothbrush itself.

"See, I'm getting the hang of this."

She got dressed without a problem and met Wilshire again.

"Hey Will, I was gonna tell you that long story."

"Oh your parents already let everyone know. I carried out the king's word. What was it like, being in an alien spaceship and all?"

"Well it was weird to say the least. I saw some beds and a lot of alien equipment, which I could only assume was the place where they experimented on people. I don't even know what was up with Merida, if that's actually her name. It's like there was some sort of sleeping curse on her. I couldn't wake her up."

"You think they did anything to you?"

Rapunzel took a moment. She wanted to tell the truth, but was concerned about letting everyone know too early.

"I'm not too sure," she answered, "They probably did, but nothing really feels wrong so far. Mind keeping an eye out?"

"Sure."

Rapunzel spent most of her first full day reuniting with everyone. While the kingdom's response wasn't anything close to the return party, it was still a sight to see her arrive back three days early. Not everyone brought the alien abduction claim, but most could believe that some otherworldly event allowed her to travel there so quickly.

"Ya know, either you're lying and are just one fast girl, or somethin' really freaky actually got ya," Hook Hand greeted her.

"Oh come on I would never abandon Eugene."

"Hooray, you got abducted!" Shorty asserted.

"That's what I've been trying to tell everyone," Rapunzel said in a sing-song tone, "I had a dream and I've always looked to the stars. I just never thought I'd go up there."

For every touch she made, she was still trying not to cause any unintentional harm, and luckily didn't. She made it through the entire day without causing one accident.

* * *

><p>That night, however, she wanted to continue testing her powers, even after a full day of practically not using them. Giving in to her curiosity, she wanted to discover more potential applications and wanted to increase her level of control. She used her super jump to sneak out of the castle via her window. Using her speed, she ran out of the kingdom, not stopping until civilization was well out of sight.<p>

Rapunzel's senses allowed her to see surprisingly well in the dark. She could still perceive everything in the forest with great clarity. Summoning her hair to pull herself up onto a nearby tree branch, she opened things up.

"OK. Stay focused."

She went on and off trees, wanting to get used to the feeling of jumping around. Off the first one to the ground, and then up for the next over and over again. As she grew more confident and made fewer mistakes, she increased the rate of doing it. Soon she was going about it over and over without a hiccup. At some point, she became brave enough to try swinging with her hair again. This time, she made sure to know where she was going and kept it simple. This time, she wouldn't crash into anything.

She summoned her hair and performed a swing that successfully landed her onto the branch of another tree. Using her hair to grab another branch, she tried it again. She proceeded to jump off and swing before letting go. With her short brunette hair she flew through the air before going back to long blonde to grab another branch, repeating the same sequence. She did it again a few times.

"Whoo-hoo!"

However, she realized using the hair-swinging method as a mode of transportation would not be effective unless she had something to grab on to. She did get very much used to doing it nonetheless. She also got more used to throwing around objects with her hair without in danger of hitting herself. While manipulating her hair was all in her head, placing at least one hand on it when in use helped her keep it under control. After all, she had to if she wanted to swing around.

Rapunzel was eager to push further, going as far to try to fully redeem herself from messing up an acrobatic move the last time. She thought if she could perform multiple long distance leaps in a row, she would have to possess enough agility to perform more complex maneuvers. First up was a single forward somersault, which to her delight, she did without a problem. She attempted more moves consisting of cartwheels and higher jumps with more rotations. While she still tripped on some of them, she found it remarkably easy to get the hang of over time.

* * *

><p>Eugene wasn't scheduled to be back for another two days, so Rapunzel was still able to sneak out at night during that time. When he came back, she immediately noticed his shocked look on the bridge. He had to continue the trip with Maximus all on his own.<p>

"Rapunzel?" he blurted when he first saw her, "Rapunzel! Oh my god!" He ran right towards her. "Is that really you? I thought I'd never see you again."

The two kissed and shared a dramatic embrace.

"Well, the good thing about the aliens that abducted me is that they return me to my home planet at least."

"Wait whoa whoa whoa whoa. Aliens?"

"Yeah. Legend has it that beings from other worlds would use their spacefaring vessels to come here and visit, sometimes even abduct and experiment on people. And I think that's what happened to me."

"OK. Can you prove it?"

"Look…"

Rapunzel directed Eugene away from the entry bridge and off the main areas so no one could see them.

"I'm asking you not to freak out, again."

She grabbed and lifted Eugene over her head with a smile.

"Hey you got super strength…oh."

She put him back down. "They experimented on me. They did something to me. So far, I know they gave me super strength, senses, speed, reflexes, and agility, plus a little unbreakable-ness, and oh…my hair." She magically switched from her short brunette hair to her long blonde hair.

"Whoa!"

Rapunzel shushed him.

"Somehow I can get my hair back whenever I want, plus I can do some new things with it."

"Well if it's really back, could you do me a favor and heal this?" Eugene rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a two inch long gash. "I fell and scraped myself."

"This would be the first time I've tried this since Gothel was alive." She wrapped her hair around his arm. "_Heal what-_"

Before she could go on much further, the hair instantly glowed and healed him.

"O-kay. I wasn't expecting that," Rapunzel said, "Check your arm." She made her hair disappear and revert back to being short and brunette. The wound was completely healed, no incantation necessary.

"Uhhh..so if I'm getting this right, you don't even need to sing? You can put your hair right on there and just heal it?"

"I guess I know now. I've been trying out my powers after I got back but I still don't even if that's all I have."

"Does anyone else know?"

"No, just me and you. I told everyone I was abducted and experimented on, but this is just between us. For now."

Eugene was the only person she felt she could trust telling at first. News of her supposed alien abduction was already very much for the kingdom to handle, and she didn't want to shock them even further. To lighten the mood the two decided to spend the evening in an outdoor café to get caught up.

"I know I'm back and safe now, but I hope you handled everything ok without me," Rapunzel started.

"I couldn't sleep at all that night," Eugene admitted, "I just couldn't believe I had to go on without you. I had to accept that you wouldn't be coming back. Now I can't even believe you're here _before_ me."

"You want the whole story?"

Eugene nodded.

"First thing that happened when I woke up in their ship was that I immediately noticed the super senses. I could hear my captors talking like they were actually in the room with me, but they weren't. And just somehow they were speaking our language. They were discussing some alien things like Infinity Stones and experimenting on people…and I'm trying to remember, something about a serum. And then I explored the room a little bit and came across someone else from _our planet_."

"So, there was another Earthling aboard with you?"

"She was asleep and wouldn't wake up. If I didn't know any better I'd say she time traveled. Her clothes were out of place, more like medieval stuff. It's weird, but I know what I saw. There was something there that said her name was Merida. That's all I could remember from my time onboard that thing."

"OK but how did you-"

"Get back here? That's an even bigger mystery. Those guys dumped me off right near the Snuggly Duckling. And that's when I discovered most everything else about my powers. I met your former friends and accidentally hit them far. And I mean pretty far."

"You saw the Stabbingtons? Seems to me like they _knew _to drop you off there. Isn't that a bit suspicious?"

"I didn't think about that. Wait…now I'm remembering them saying something about wanting to take me in particular."

"So they do know some things about you."

"I guess they can spy on us as well."

The two spent quite the time at the café even after they finished their food. They thought they lost each other and wanted to spend time together more than ever. When they finally returned to the castle for a night's sleep, Rapunzel reminded Eugene about adjusting to her powers.

"After I realized I had the strength I overthought everything I did. I thought I was gonna break everything. Luckily at this point I've got some control," Rapunzel assured him.

"Just don't squeeze me too tight in bed now."

"Oh I won't."

* * *

><p>A few hours into the night, Rapunzel sneaked out again. She hoped Eugene would understand her going out to test her powers more. That's not what she ended up doing.<p>

While she was making her way out through back alleys, she encountered a man being harassed by three thugs. It chilled her spine and only reminded her of the time earlier with the Stabbingtons.

"We told you to cooperate, little man," one of the thugs scolded him.

"Please, I-I never wanted any trouble," the victim begged.

She couldn't stand it. She had to stop them.

"Hey guys," she started, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

The thugs released him and focused their attention on her. From a good distance away, Rapunzel grabbed the closest one and threw him behind her via her hair, knocking him out. She next engaged the other two. They each pulled out a long knife, causing her to freeze.

"Oh my god ok ok," she surrendered as she put her hands up, "I'm bringing fists in to a knife fight-whoa!"

They charged at her. Again, her reflexes and agility allowed her to dodge their swings and get inside their long reach. She was only five foot two inches. The thugs easily had to have been over six nine each. She ducked and reached back to perform an overhead throw on the first one. The second one attempted to take her head off with a sweep but she simply jumped and whirled over him to evade it. Confused, he didn't know what was happening before she kicked the back of his left shin, fracturing it.

"Arrrgghh!"

Rapunzel ran away from him and leaped onto a roof to contemplate. She was at odds with herself. On one hand it was scary and reckless. She could have died. At the same time, it seemed like the correct thing to do. She saved a man from a group of people that brought back memories of her experiences escaping the tower with Eugene. They were the types that were selfish, greedy, and violent, willing to go through any means to get what they want.

* * *

><p>Eugene questioned where Rapunzel went the next morning, and she felt hesitant telling him the whole thing.<p>

"I told you I've been testing my powers, right?" Rapunzel told him.

"Yeah…"

"Well last night I wanted to do that, but instead I ended up beating down some thugs."

"You _what_?"

"They were harassing some random poor guy. I couldn't just stand there."

"So you just…you used-"

"Yeah, I did."

"I'm just worried. I know you got some power but you need to be careful."

"I was thinking the same, but somehow it just felt right doing it. I feel like I could help so many people."

Eugene felt uneasy. He just wanted to have a normal life with her after she saved his life, but ever since Rapunzel's abduction he knew. Things would be different.


	4. Enter Merida

**A/N: Before anyone asks, I realize Merida shares a lot of similarities with Green Arrow as I have written her. She's an archer that wears a green outfit. She's got a tragic backstory that will be revealed more as the story goes on (just like in the Arrow TV series).**

* * *

><p>Merida had no clue where she was or what happened to her. Last she remembered, she thought she died, killed in action. She woke up in the middle of a forest right next to a small and mysterious metal vessel. A sword, her bow and arrow, and a few flashbacks were the only things she possessed.<p>

_"You have been asleep for over three centuries. Try to relax. We didn't want to break it to you too quickly. You were rescued from the bottom of that river and everything was done to try and save you," a voice said._

_"Three _centuries_?" Merida inquired, "How is that possible? No one can live that long!"_

_"Suspended animation. Look around you. We're not from your planet. We have the technology to keep someone around for as long as we want. Don't worry, we'll send you back."_

Merida got up. Three centuries. Whatever she had in her old life was gone now. They held up their promise and sent her back all right, but she couldn't figure out who they were. She could only confirm they were indeed extraterrestrials and that they sent her back to her planet via the vessel. It was presumably the future for her, so she needed to find out where she was and what everything was like.

_"What I gave you…the serum, it not only permanently healed your injuries but has physiologically buffed you to the peak of human potential"_

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

Merida still didn't understand what they meant by that. She didn't think she was stronger than before, seeing that her build remained the same. The only change she could notice was her hair. It was shorter and tied back, less curly than before.

She first decided to climb up a tree to get her bearings straight. The climb felt easier than usual, but she was too desperate to wonder why. She only wanted to get up there. By the position of the sun, she guessed that it was noon. Not much civilization could be seen in the horizon, except for one. In the distance, a castle appeared to be standing far above the trees. It was several miles away, but it was the only place she could go.

She climbed back down going for a hunt. Sneaking through the trees, she quietly approached a group of deer. As she drew an arrow, her right foot slipped a little and accidentally snapped a twig, causing them to run away. Instinctively, she went after them and fired a shot while moving and off balance anyway, which remarkably hit one of them.

She always knew she was a good shot, but that one should not have hit. She was in an awkward position when she fired it. It couldn't have been accurate. Maybe she was just lucky.

She approached the dead dear and proceeded to cut off all edible meat with her sword. There was a suitable area a few yards away to start a fire but Merida knew she couldn't get too comfortable. She ate quickly, maybe too quickly, before setting on foot towards the castle. Not having a horse limited her, but she was still fine with setting up camp if she needed to.

Continuing on traveling, she began to realize the moving shot wasn't a fluke. She found herself shooting arrows at a rate that was well beyond what a normal human could achieve. Hunting was a part of her lifestyle and she was an incredibly good shot to begin with, but she couldn't believe how much faster she was doing it. She found herself getting less tired and worn out than she should have given the intense hunting and the numerous tree climbs. Now she had a better idea of what that mysterious man meant.

* * *

><p>Amidst all of Rapunzel's endeavors, she found herself diving in to yet another one, but one that was quite different from the rest. During the day, she would continue what she had always been doing, but spent more time napping. This was to allow herself to moonlight as a vigilante. Night in and night out, she would save innocents and beat up thugs.<p>

She came to using the same formula every time she went out. After dressing as a commoner post-dinner, she would first jump onto the closest roof out of the castle. The kingdom had grown substantially since she first returned to it, but her super hearing allowed her to detect if someone needed saving. If so, she would make her way towards the sounds rapidly jumping rooftop to rooftop. If not, she would proceed to the next rooftop and wait for anything.

Her approach to engaging baddies wasn't complicated at all, and didn't need to be. She would simply jump right into the area where the action was happening, say something random to get their attention, and finally summon her hair to pull them away. The sheer force used to throw them was usually enough to knock them out. If it didn't or there were too many, fighting them hand to hand would almost always incapacitate them because of her reflexes, agility, and sheer strength. In fact, she had so much strength she had to pull her punches or risk causing fatal injuries. Nevertheless, she was putting herself in danger every time she went out at night. Eugene was right.

Because of the nature of her vigilantism, she couldn't keep a low profile for long. Word spread among commoners that a mysterious hero emerged wielding incredibly long blonde hair. There was only one person it could be, but it was impossible. Rapunzel lost her hair for good before reuniting with the kingdom. They questioned whether or not her supposed alien abduction had something to do with it (which it did). However, it wasn't until she came across a noisier crime scene that she gained notoriety across the kingdom, and not exactly in the way she liked.

One night, she followed the sound of a window breaking to an armed robbery of a jewelry shop. She jumped down from a roof to see two large, knife-wielding assailants threatening the shop owner. As always, she interrupted them.

"You know, I'm wondering, why jewelry? If you want money, you should go to the bank!"

With two halves of her hair she immediately went for a throw that launched them out of the store through the broken window. It was lame, but it was the only thing she could think of saying.

"Are you all right?" she asked the owner as she ran inside. He hurried away and didn't give an answer. Then suddenly, one of the bandits threw his knife at her while she wasn't looking. She dodged it.

That was new. She felt something coming for the back of her head. Perhaps her senses were just that good, or she had some sort of extra awareness to things moving around her.

"Uhhh…I guess you're gonna have to try harder than that," she hesitantly taunted them.

The other threw his knife as Rapunzel charged at him. She jumped and whirled through the broken window to avoid it. Right after she landed on her feet back outside, he swung at her head with a punch in response. She got under it and elbowed him, knocking him well away. The first one went after her. She somersaulted over to avoid him and quickly pulled him with her hair right into a punch. Making her hair vanish and go back to being short, she let the force of the blow send him soaring through the air towards his fellow fallen comrade.

She nearly died again, but was glad she found a way to end the situation.

* * *

><p>The next morning, news of her nighttime activities reached her parents.<p>

"Rapunzel, what's this?" her father asked her, showing her the newspaper.

_"Incredible! Former Lost Princess Stops Armed Robbery!"_ the headline read.

"It says here you displayed superhuman strength and you used your hair. Your _long_ hair. Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

"Ugh okay okay," Rapunzel sighed, "I was planning on telling everyone. I just didn't wanna spill everything that happened to me so quick."

"So you have…magic now?"

"I can't really say. I'm sure those aliens did something to me through some sort of experimentation."

Eugene arrived into the room.

"Good morning Eugene!" Rapunzel greeted him.

"Hey, have you seen the crowds outside?" he asked.

"Crowds?"

"I was about to get to that," her father remarked.

Rapunzel looked out the window to see an unusually large group of commoners gathered outside the castle. "Punz! Punz! Punz! Punz!" they chanted. She was always a big name around the kingdom, but never before had she gotten that much attention.

She again felt conflicted. When she went out for the day she was bombarded by countless people who praised her deeds, whom she tolerated despite them being annoying. On the other side of things, she noticed a small minority that grew distrustful of her taking things into her own hands.

* * *

><p>Their reactions did not stop her from going out that night. After seeking out suspicious sounds for a few hours, she began to think perhaps the perpetrators became less willing to play with her around. She eventually found some action, so she reached the scene quickly by leaping rooftop to rooftop and jumping down right into the alley. She spotted an innocent man and promptly got him to safety.<p>

"You guys should know by now. Your actions are futile," she greeted the thugs.

"Actually I think yours are, princess," one of them warned her.

What started as an encounter with two quickly turned to six. It seemed the thugs planned a coordinated attack that put her over her head. She threw the first one with her hair behind towards the rest, causing him to collide with another member of his buddies. The second tried to grab her. She spun to dodge and hit him hard towards a wall in one swift motion. Next, she turned around to go after another, only to be interrupted by a sudden flurry of arrows that non-lethally took the rest out.

Rapunzel looked up to spot where the shooter was, but wasn't able to see anyone perched on the low rooftops. Her confused silence was momentarily broken by the voice of a young female.

"You should know what you're getting yourself into next time," she said.

Rapunzel turned around to see the mystery sniper carrying her bow. She was in an all green outfit, complete with a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt, a hooded vest over her shirt, moderately fitting pants, and brown shoes. She was equipped with a quiver of arrows on her back and a sword. Removing her hood, she revealed herself.

"Merida? Wait-"

"What? How do you know me?" Merida cut Rapunzel off.

"I was abducted by aliens. I saw you onboard their spaceship."

This caused Merida to have a flashback.

_"__You need to meet someone back on your planet who has been here, on this ship. Don't worry. We'll put you pretty close to her kingdom."_

"It seems you can do some not normal things. You're Rapunzel…the princess?" Merida asked.

"Oh…I forgot you're obviously new here," Rapunzel answered, noticing her accent.

"Look, why don't we find a better place to talk?"

Merida astoundingly hopped off one of one the walls and onto the opposite roof. Most buildings in Corona weren't much taller than three stories and that one was only a single story establishment, but still.

"You coming or not?" she implored.

Rapunzel leaped onto the same roof in one bound.

"Are you-"

"I'll explain. Let's just get away from here," Merida cut her off.

The fact that Merida could jump between the same rooftops Rapunzel did was intriguing. Rapunzel almost thought the same exact thing happened to her…or perhaps she was just in good shape. She followed Merida until they were far enough away and out of sight for a more relaxing conversation.

"You saw me on that ship, right?" Merida asked as Rapunzel shrugged, "It's just I know I was there but I lost my memories of what happened."

"Yeah. I tried waking you up, but you were really out of it. What were you doing there?"

"Well I brought you here to tell the entire story, so here goes. Based on my flashbacks so far, one of those non-Earth people, whoever they were, told me he kept me alive for a very long time. I had a life and thought I died, but he said I was rescued. I hope you believe me so far."

"Oh those guys were pretty crazy. I'm pretty sure they could do that."

"Anyway, according to him they kept me alive but they weren't able to heal my injuries, until he got something that could. Apparently it turned me into what they called a 'peak human'. Before I ended up here he told me to find you."

"So that's how you were jumping like that. What was your old life like?"

"I used to be a princess in a kingdom called DunBroch. It's in the Scottish Highlands and I'm not sure if it still exists. I was the best archer in the land and became quite the figure there, but it wasn't always that way. Before I was a rebellious one, never wanting to be what my mother wanted to be. She wanted me to be a 'proper' royal princess. I wanted freedom and hated her for making me do what she wanted.

"I dunno what it's like now, but in those days a princess had to get married not out of love, but for things like alliances. One day three suitors from the kingdom's different clans arrived competing for my hand in marriage to help keep everything stable. They were crude and unattractive. At that point I couldn't stand it anymore and disobeyed. I wanted to change my fate. You see where I came from there were these magical spirits called the Will O' the Wisps, which can lead you to your fate."

"You've had some experience with magic?" Rapunzel interrupted, "What do those things do?"

"I followed them to a witch and I asked her to 'change' my mother so I could get out of the whole thing. That ended up turning her into a bear. I thought everything went horribly wrong. But I reversed it and realized I needed to mend the bond torn by pride, my pride. If I didn't she would have stayed a bear forever. Everything changed after that. She agreed to let the suitors marry whoever they wanted.

"Some time later our kingdom became united against a common enemy. At first, we thought all was lost, but I changed fate yet again. I helped rally the clans. I inspired people. We fought with honor. We achieved victory, but not without a cost. I met my apparent death at the hands of a dragon."

"Wait whoa," Rapunzel interrupted again, "A dragon?"

"The creature burned me and I fell into a river. Next thing I knew I woke up in that ship you were talking about."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Next up: Mother Gothel comes back. The movie seemed to imply she's a witch with some magical powers (disappearing acts, etc). How do you think Punz and Merida will do against her?**


	5. Return of Mother Gothel

News of Merida's arrival spread through Corona like wildfire. The kingdom practically spent an entire day of festivities dedicated to her, intrigued by her unexpected appearance. Her presence convinced more people that Rapunzel was actually abducted and experimented on by otherworldly beings. To them Merida was a walking specimen of history, having been under suspended animation for a very long time, and wanted to hear all of her stories. They were impressed by her archery skills, which were far beyond anyone they could think of, and gladly provided her with arrows so she could demonstrate.

"These are quite nicely done. What are these paintings of?" Merida asked. Rapunzel was giving her a tour of the castle and they came across a group of wall paintings.

"I did these myself. That was me about three years ago. It's a long story."

"You did that? You're quite talented. So much detail of the room, and the tower, and…who's that? And what are these lights all about?"

"You wanna hear the whole thing?"

"I've already told mine. Go 'head."

Rapunzel sighed and brought Merida to her room. Rapunzel sat down on her bed to tell her story. When she got around to part about meeting Eugene, Merida had another flashback.

_"I don't expect you to understand everything I tell you and even I have trouble believing it, but I chose her because I was mysteriously led to her by some magic, and found she possessed some herself. Knowing that, I wanted to see how a specific kind of cosmic radiation would affect her," the same mysterious man told her._

_"What kind of magic?" Merida asked._

_"She'll explain that when you meet her. When we released her she seemed to be in healthy condition, but based on my tests the radiation genetically altered her. That is not magic, I promise you. Expect her to possess out of the ordinary abilities. The so-called 'magic' is outside my area of expertise unfortunately." _

_"Sorry. What's all that supposed to mean?"_

Merida snapped back to reality.

"Merida? Are you okay?" Rapunzel interrupted herself.

"I had a flashback. You were talking about your hair right? It had all the flower power and you would lose it if cut?"

"Y-yeah. What did'ya see?"

"Some conversation about magic in you, cosmic radiation, and you getting genetically altered," Merida responded, "Go on."

"I…don't know what that means but anyway. After I realized Mother Gothel wasn't really my mother she restrained me. Eugene came back to the tower and was stabbed by her. Instead of letting me save him with my hair he decided to cut it instead, which severed Gothel's connection to everlasting life and she died. Just when I thought I couldn't save him it turned out I still had the flower's power in me. With a drop of a tear, he came back to life."

"Sounds romantic." Merida paused, still questioning everything she had seen in her flashbacks.

"What is it?"

"One of the aliens you told me about. You call them aliens, right? I'm confused. He told me you would have powers not from magic. Then he told me he wanted you because you had magic, which you just said is the hair. I guess he thought something would happen to it but he has no clue how."

"Really? I know something happened to my magic since I can get my hair back whenever I want now. I thought these guys were advanced beyond our wildest dreams and would at least have a deeper understanding than we do."

"We still have a lot of questions I see. Could you show me a little of what the world's like now?"

Rapunzel led Merida to the castle library.

"What's this?" Merida asked, noticing the model of Corona.

"It's a model of the city. We like to keep it here to show how much it's expanding. Before there was just forest past that bridge you came in on and now it's practically another village. There's also some new stuff being built over the water."

"Who made this? This is amazing. Don't tell me you did-"

"Oh no, I didn't make this. One of our servants got some of his craftsmen friends to make this. It's stunning, but it's also a reminder of the challenges the kingdom faces. Population growth is hard to deal with."

"I never imagined so many people living together like this. I'm used to smaller."

"Here." Rapunzel pulled out books detailing the history between her time and the one she ended up in. "These are pretty much all the information on major historical events that happened while you were gone. At least this is what we got."

Merida was very intrigued by the advancements in weaponry and how wars across the continent changed the borders. She was also amazed seeing how other technological advancements allowed the citizens of Corona to live the way they do.

"This is all incredible. I never would've known."

* * *

><p>The kingdom finished off Merida's day with lanterns exactly like the ones used for the former Lost Princess, but done instead for the purpose of paying tribute to Merida's old life. Her kin once mourned her loss, but now she had to mourn the loss of everyone she knew, especially her parents and her three brothers. Having to restart everything from scratch proved difficult to sympathize with, and the kingdom wanted to make her feel as welcome as possible.<p>

Merida continued her conversations with various kingdom citizens, giving them further and further insight. Rapunzel and Eugene sailed out on the water in a canoe once again. It was a quiet, romantic evening for them reflecting on all their recent experiences. If only it stayed that way.

While they were walking back to the castle a nearby building suddenly burst into flames. The sound of it was nearly as loud as a cannon going off, causing everyone to flee. Rapunzel responded to the ensuing screams by turning on her hero mode. She used her senses to guesstimate the number of people inside and went for it. Luckily, it appeared there was perhaps only one or two, as the building in question contained a blacksmith shop that was closing up. She saw the first man trapped under a log. She tossed it away with her hair and approached him. He was carried outside, who had already sustained burns and a bruised chest. She then went back in going for men detected in the back of the shop.

Rapunzel was glad she wasn't being fazed by the heat, but it presented more questions. She couldn't feel it at all, despite the fire progressing at an alarming rate. Debris was already raining down on her during her second trip inside, inducing her to weave through and make a run for it. The first one she saw in the back room had suffered a broken leg. She carried him out the back door and quickly healed it with her hair. Going in one last time she saw the last guy trapped under some fallen fireplace bricks and almost unconscious. Testing her theory of being resistant to heat, she picked them up and threw them away by hand, allowing her to carry him away. She checked her hands, but they were fine.

After everyone was out she jumped onto the roof of a building across the street, gaining a vantage point to try and spot what caused it. Fires like that one aren't supposed to happen. Sure, there was an explosion, but it shouldn't have progressed so quickly. She turned her head a few times, but couldn't identify any potential culprits. Merida wanted to see as well, running in the opposite direction of the crowd.

"Merida!" Rapunzel called out to her.

"What happened? Why is there a fire?" Merida stopped and asked.

"I got no idea. I heard an explosion and-"

_"Hello, Rapunzel."_

Rapunzel turned around to see Mother Gothel levitating in the air a few yards from her, causing her to fall onto her back shocked.

"Is that-"

"Yes. Yes it is," Rapunzel cut Merida off, "How…how are you here? You're supposed to be dead."

"Magic," Gothel answered as she floated towards the main street, "Dark magic."

Gothel waved her hand and stopped the fire. Rapunzel leaped off the roof for a punch to Gothel's jaw. Gothel saw her coming and telekinetically flung her back down to the street with the flick of a wrist.

"Rapunzel, please! That is no way to treat your mother!" she taunted in mock offense.

Unscathed by the impact of hitting the ground so hard, Rapunzel got up. "You are not my mother!" she yelled back. She grabbed Gothel with her hair and pulled her down into the path of another punch, which this time, successfully landed right after she made her hair vanish. Gothel was sent dozens of feet through the air and crashed into a flower stand.

Rapunzel and Merida ran towards her. The collision should have knocked her out, and it indeed appeared so, until they heard something strange. It sounded like the broken bones were rapidly healing by themselves, like her entire body had a healing factor. Realizing this, they quickly backed away.

"Look at you, Rapunzel. Always wanting me to be the bad guy. Fine. I should tell you then, I didn't come here without backup," Gothel warned in a sing-song tone.

As they saw Gothel place some sort of magical shield on herself a group of gargoyles suddenly flew in. One of them snatched Merida. Clearly with the intent of separating the two, they took her to the opposite side of the kingdom and threw her onto a random roof. Bystanders ran away from that area as well.

Pulling herself up, Merida drew an arrow. The flying creatures were violent and vicious. They were pretty much small lions with dragon wings, and had sharp, extending claws. There was also many, enough to take over the entire island. She knew they meant business and had to take them down. To begin her counter onslaught, she shot down the one that brought her there, then immediately turned around and shot down another.

Because of her condition, Merida was fast enough to hit them even at close range, despite their numbers and high movement speeds. She was sniping them left and right at an amazing rate without missing a single shot. For a while, it seemed the gargoyles couldn't even scratch her. But her streak couldn't last.

Halfway through her quiver, Merida saw a big one show up out in the horizon. The comparably oversized gargoyle was unquestionably their leader, so she jumped down to the street to give herself more room to work with. She fired one for the creature's chest and one for his head. It didn't hurt him much and only angered him further. He landed on the ground and charged at her. She could only fire off three more before being forced to draw her sword and engage in melee combat. He extended his claws and began to swing at her on his hind legs. She blocked the creature's powerful strikes with ease, but was unable to gain any sort of advantage because of how random they were.

She switched tactics, choosing to run away and leading the creature on a wild chase. Having gained enough distance, she turned around, anticipating him going for an overhead slash. A moment before he predictably did so, Merida ran towards him and ducked. Getting underneath him, she plunged her sword into his gut and pulled it out, grunting with effort as she did so. The creature's skin was tough, but that did the trick. He feebly tried to go for one last move. Merida darted and wall hopped off a nearby building, landing her square on his back. She then stabbed him in the neck, which finished him off, finally.

She ran back to where she dropped her bow and readied herself to shoot down more gargoyles, but the demise of the big guy signaled a retreat. At least they were gone, but one of them flew away in the opposite direction of the others. She went after him.

* * *

><p>Rapunzel was keeping Gothel busy enough after being left alone. She figured she was up against a wide arsenal of magic, and didn't want to know what Gothel could do to her should she let her guard down for too long.<p>

She went on the attack immediately to start the fight, using her hair to grab Gothel around the arms and waist and throwing her. It didn't injure her like before. Realizing Gothel's shield protected her from harm Rapunzel went all out and chained together new combos. Sometimes she would use her hair to throw Gothel around from a distance, making her smash into the ground and collide into nearby buildings a few times. Sometimes she would pull Gothel towards her into a punch or kick, letting Gothel fly about before summoning the hair back to grab her again. Even when Gothel managed to hit her with various telekinetic and energy attacks, Rapunzel would jump right back up and use her hair while airborne. Gothel had little time to mount a good offense as she was totally surprised by Rapunzel's powers.

However, the two did not remain alone for long. The gargoyle Merida chased came back to where Rapunzel and Gothel were and snatched Rapunzel. Merida attempted to fire an arrow at Gothel's legs but it was telekinetically halted. Gothel then used her TK again to toss Merida into a wall, knocking her out.

These creatures were also stronger than they looked. Rapunzel had to use more strength than she would have liked to break free. When she did, she was over the surrounding sea.

"Hyrrah!"

Falling several stories, she used her hair to try and grab something in a desperation move before landing in the water on her back. Just somehow, she did. She noticed the tension, so she swam and pulled herself towards the other end of her hair. When she looked up to see where she was going she noticed she was pulling herself right towards Corona's entry bridge.

"That's impossible!" she blurted. There was nothing to get her hair caught on there that she knew of. When she finally reached the bridge she saw it. The hair wasn't actually entwined in anything, but instead stuck to the stone itself like a strong adhesive. She still had much to learn about her hair.

She released herself and grabbed one of the bridge's lamp posts to climb back up. She ran back to where she was snatched, going fast enough to reach there within a quarter of a minute. Merida was the only one there, and while most everyone was safely away from the action, she could hear another heartbeat in her proximity. It had to be Gothel. Rapunzel always knew the woman who kidnapped her could magically pop in and out of sight, but she could at least track her now.

_"By the way Rapunzel, I was wondering, why such power now? Perhaps you were hiding it all this time?"_

Rapunzel could here Gothel's voice echo through the street. She was definitely present…somewhere.

_"You don't have to answer, darling. I'm just curious," _Gothel continued.

Rapunzel woke up Merida, hoping to get some help from her. Gothel's heartbeat was still jumping around all over the place, making it difficult for Rapunzel to get a lock on. Without warning, the beating sound rapidly became louder and louder.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Rapunzel ordered Merida.

Gothel popped in right behind them and hit Rapunzel with a spell. She tried to retaliate with her hair but couldn't do it. It stayed short and brunette.

"Go ahead, try. It'll never work," Gothel sneered, "I've temporarily cut you off you're your magic." Gothel took advantage of the opportunity and summoned ropes to bind both Rapunzel and Merida. She pushed them to the ground.

Or did she? Were Rapunzel's powers truly magical? She could still hear Merida's and Gothel's heartbeats. Something was off about the whole thing.

"You two are starting to get on my nerves." Gothel calmly walked away from them.

Rapunzel feared for everyone's lives given all the magic Gothel had displayed thus far. She thought she wasn't getting out of it and would fail to stop Gothel from harming others. In that moment her adrenaline went up higher and higher, allowing her to push her limits more than she ever had before. She was about to learn yet another thing about herself.

She broke herself free and stood up. Her entire body was glowing bright yellow while she felt a huge energy surge. Gothel noticed what happened and turned back. She promptly went for another magical attack, this time to knock her out. Rapunzel could only put her hands out in front of her as she couldn't use her hair, her primary defense against Gothel's magic. Expecting to be hit, she instead fired a beam of light from each hand. The involuntary attack knocked Gothel backwards and burned her.

"Punz?" Merida gasped, "What was that?"

Rapunzel was motionless.

"I…I got no idea," Rapunzel stuttered.

"You know where to find me, Rapunzel!" Gothel goaded as she flew away.

"Well, glad she's away," Merida said in relief, "Now if you could tell me you could do that again that would be great."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Punz and Merida stomp round 1 10/10. There will be a rematch...**


	6. Some Questions Answered

Rapunzel and Merida spent much of the next afternoon pondering over what they were going to do about Gothel. It was obviously some kind of ploy, but if they let her sit around too long she may lose her patience and come back to attack the kingdom again.

"Awake enough?" Rapunzel asked.

"I should be. It's noon," Merida answered.

"Look, I just wanna end this, okay? I'd rather you stay out of this. Gothel was out of my life and I don't want her back in. It's my problem."

"I know that, but we don't know what she's up to, or what she wants. If you are to have fate on your side, you need to be prepared. Look, I 'died' defending my kingdom, and I want to honor that. Gothel is obviously powerful enough to be a threat to all of us. I'm helping you, whether you like it or not."

Rapunzel reluctantly led her back into the castle library, where they worked up quite the sweat questioning both Mother Gothel's and Rapunzel's powers.

"Okay," Rapunzel began, "I got my hair back, and we got a lot of questions to answer now."

"The spell that Gothel cast and whether or not your powers count as magic…and how she's back to begin with?" Merida inquired.

"Right. Well there's information here in the library. Where should we start?"

"I say anything to do with spells and witches would be good."

"Hopefully…"

They did just that, picking out every book that had to do with magic and stacked them on the table. Gothel specifically mentioned dark magic, so they sat down and looked for ways it could bring back someone from the dead.

"I got a hit," Rapunzel said after a while.

"What is it?" Merida asked.

"It says here that if someone has died through magical means, they can be brought back using a piece of their flesh or ashes, some other magical ingredients, and a human sacrifice. At least we know one way someone could be brought back."

"I hope. It seemed like it was her, but there could be some other possibilities. There's a chance she could be an imposter, or she's a clone."

"Well like you said, we don't know what she wants, but we know she's a threat. What's next?"

They next searched for information on spells. It was refreshingly different from all the dark stuff they looked at in the previous books.

"'_How to disable the use of magic'_," Merida read.

"Looks like it wasn't too hard to find," Rapunzel remarked, "Where'd you find it?" Merida slid the book over to her. "Oh, I've seen this book. It just lists some common kinds of magic and using it. The writing's big and looks important, so it's probably a basic thing to do." Rapunzel flipped through the pages. "Umm…well it goes on about ways you could do it. Enchanted objects, enchanted objects, potions,…spells."

"Can I see?"

"Sure." Rapunzel slid the book back over towards Merida.

"'_Listed below are various spells, but it can be done by advanced practitioners with a simple wave of the hand_'… are there any loopholes? I don't see anything else here."

"Nothing on it not working right? Even then I doubt she would've messed it up. She's been around for centuries. I could've sworn she only took away my hair. You said something about my powers not being magic?"

"Yeah, which gives us something else to think about. If it isn't magic, then where is it coming from? You haven't really had the chance to talk about it that much."

"I guess everything besides the hair is somehow not powered by magic. When I first arrived back on the planet it felt like everything around me was unbelievably clear. I could hear every little sound, see every little detail, things like that. My hearing's actually good enough to listen to your heart beating right now. Then I noticed I was stronger, faster, more agile, and harder to break. First time it happened I barely even tried and I hit two guys twice my size a heck of a lot away. The hair is a longer story, no pun intended. Not only can I have it whenever I want, but I can make it disappear and go back to what you see right now. Another plus is that I can make it move with my mind.

"I've been testing myself, but I still got a lot to learn. I decided to fight bad guys and then I noticed something else that was a little suspect. One time someone tried to throw a knife to the back of my head. I dodged it without ever seeing it coming, and I don't really know how I even did it. What happened last night though…"

Merida allowed Rapunzel to let out a breath. "That was your latest discovery?" she butt in.

"It was in the rush of the moment. I thought Gothel was gonna do more damage with me out of the picture. I just felt some energy charging up in me and then I accidentally let it out on her. That wasn't the only thing. Somehow I got my hair stuck onto the bridge like glue."

"Hmmm…interesting. Are you still sure it's not magic? All you told me is certainly is out of the ordinary. If it isn't, that gives us a huge advantage. Do you have anything else around here?"

"Well I do read a lot of books, but I don't really like to read the magic stuff here too much. But I do know this one called: _A Theory of Magic_." Rapunzel got up to pull it off the shelf.

Merida opened the book to its table of contents and noticed something peculiar. After looking through the various other entries the book contained, the last one was simply titled: "_What is magic?_"

"Erm, Punz? Have you seen this yet?"

Rapunzel looked over. "I…don't think so. That's interesting." She flipped through to the back of the book to read it.

_"I have journeyed across many lands to make this book possible, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the nature of magic to whoever may read this. You might be surprised to learn that, as the author of this book, I am actually a mathematician and scientist. So why am I writing about magic, something that isn't rationally explainable?_

_"Before I thought it was all nonsense, but after I witnessed a family lose a loved one to a being wielding magic, I decided to dedicate a good portion of my studies to it so I could better understand and help people defend against it. Through my time traveling and documenting examples, I began wondering more and more about what makes magic work. It would seem to break many known laws of nature. You cannot get something from nothing, and you must have a strong source of energy to perform the feats I have previously described. Where is it coming from?_

_"The only answer I can give is that it is a kind of energy that isn't understood, but very real. Many times throughout history we've seen the unknown turn into science through increased knowledge and discovery. That could be the case here. However, I still hold some uncertainty about that hypothesis._

_"Sometime during my travels I was brought to the attention of the concept of qi. Those who utilize it claim that it is an energy that permeates everything around us. Through training, they can draw on it to enhance their physical capabilities to superhuman levels as well as develop mild psychic abilities. Some are apparently naturally gifted so much as to be able to use it to project energy. This sounded much like magic when I first learned about it, so I decided to test to see if it was. The test came out negative…"_

Rapunzel skipped a couple of lines.

_"The term 'magic' may very well be only an umbrella term for anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps we should learn to use the term only for the topics I have covered in this book. This contrasts qi, which is more questionable in terms of being scientifically sound, even though there is a hint of mysticism with it. However, you could make the case that it is simply a different side of the same coin. _

_"The point is this: there is still much to learn about how our world works, how our universe works, and what makes it behave the way it does. There may be many more kinds of phenomena out there that have yet to be seen, and we shouldn't be so quick to label them."_

"Well glad someone else would agree my powers aren't totally magical," Rapunzel concluded, "That still doesn't tell me where I'm getting them from."

Merida took a few moments to recall the entire sequence of Gothel's defeat. "I might have a clue."

* * *

><p>"I hope you don't mind me out here with you," Merida said.<p>

"Oh no, not at all. You really think I have the sun's power back?"

"Well you were talking about your hair. It would explain that at least."

After going through some other books, they ventured out into the surrounding forest so they could give themselves ample room as Rapunzel had done before to test herself out.

"I just want to see everything you know you can do," Merida declared. She wanted to see Rapunzel show off and know what she was capable of.

"OK, umm…well. How tall you think these trees are?"

"I'd say four, maybe five stories."

Taking only one lead step, Rapunzel proceeded to jump straight up. She went high enough that her feet were at about the same level as the top of the trees.

Next she went to uproot a relatively smaller tree with her bare hands as a show of strength, just as she did previously. Placing the tree sideways on the ground and breaking off the largest branches, she could now demonstrate using her hair.

Merida saw Rapunzel's hair glow and rapidly grow, shooting itself towards the tree in the blink of an eye and wrapping itself around it. Rapunzel showed a few instances of shortening and lengthening her hair at will. That, along with psychokinetic control of her hair, allowed her to move the tree back and forth. She finished by throwing the tree over her head and far behind her. To perform the move, she rapidly decreased her hair's length. Then she made it vanish in a cloud of yellow sparkles as soon as she exerted the necessary force to throw it over, leaving her with her short brunette hair.

"Whoa," Merida gasped.

"Oh there's more."

Rapunzel leaped into the air, summoned her hair to grab a tree branch, and pulled herself up further to start swinging around. She was now confident she didn't need to know whether or not she could wrap her hair around a branch, thinking about what happened the previous night getting her hair stuck to the bridge.

"Whoo-hoo!"

Shouting in glee, she went through multiple sequences of shooting her hair towards a branch to swing, discarding it to let herself move freely through the air, and summoning it back to swing from a different branch. Sometimes she was swinging high enough to propel herself clear above the trees, somersaulting as she did so.

"I'm impressed," Merida praised as Rapunzel finished, "How were you moving around all those trees like that?"

"I…don't really know. First time trying I was messing up and crashing and falling a few times. Then it just got easier the more I tried."

"Like you know where these trees are without seeing them? From what I can tell you barely have any time to get a look, if you even get one at all."

"Well I do have crazy fast reflexes."

Rapunzel thought about it. Her reaction times were clearly superhuman and she could see very far, but that didn't necessarily mean she knew the correct way to react every time in order to swing the way she did. Plus she even managed to do it gracefully.

"You have anything here that can blindfold me?" Rapunzel asked.

"What?"

"I think somehow I know where things are without seeing. That's why I can move around like that. That's also how I dodged a knife thrown at the back of my head."

"Like a sixth sense?"

"Yeah. And plug my ears"

Merida blindfolded Rapunzel with a piece of cloth and plugged her ears with a few tree leaves. They decided to play a game of tag and Rapunzel was it, starting out far away and well hidden from each other. Her theory was right. She was going after Merida as if she still had her hearing and sight, eventually tagging her after effortlessly running, weaving, and jumping over obstacles.

"Well that answer's that one," Rapunzel concluded as she removed the blindfold and earplugs, "Now, about last night-"

"I was getting to that. I think that one also came from the sun."

"You're kidding right? How can something not magical come from the same source?"

"It sure looked like something that came from the sun. Your entire body was glowing like your hair."

"Well, what's non-magical and uses the sun for its power?"

Rapunzel might have just figured that one out as well.


	7. Bringing The Fight To Her

As Rapunzel stayed in dealing with royal matters the next day, Merida decided to sneak out solo and look for answers. She still didn't know why aliens would want to try to save her to begin with.

"Come on, faster, Max!"

She was retracing her steps on horseback, wanting to go to where she started so she could see what was up with that small alien spacecraft. Maximus decidedly slid to a halt when they finally came across it.

"Just wait here."

Merida unsaddled and cautiously approached it. She didn't know what to expect. Inside, most everything appeared to be in ruins. It was clear the vessel couldn't be brought back to life and working again, except for one thing.

She noticed a mysterious tablet shaped electronic device sitting there in a corner. To her it seemed it was a small, glowing painting that was constantly changing. Out of curiosity, she picked it up. As soon as she did, the screen changed to show a physically fit middle-aged man.

"Hello Merida," he said, causing her to drop it and back away. "No I know what you're thinking, but I'm not some kind of magic mirror. This is pre-recorded. I'm not actually here and I have already said this before you're hearing it now. Go ahead. Try and ask me anything."

The man paused for a few seconds to allow Merida to ask some random questions.

"No, see I can't answer any of that. What you're seeing is just advanced technology from an alien race that is well beyond what anyone on your planet knows. My name is Clint Barton. I've been asked give to a message.

"We don't know who rescued you, but we do know that everything was done to keep you alive, even if that meant keeping you in a virtual time capsule for centuries. You suffered heavy bone fractures and fourth degree burns. Only recently were you given a super-soldier serum that allowed your injuries to heal. Any attempt to fix you up earlier would have likely killed you. To repay the favor for putting you through all this, I've agreed to leave you with some of the tech I use. In one of the compartments in the vessel you landed in there's a high tech collapsible bow and quiver…"

Merida eventually found it. A bow and arrow was far from unfamiliar to her, but she relished the technology in the one it found. They were made of unknown and advanced materials, rather than the old fashioned wood and feathers. The quiver harnessed the power of electricity to screw on different arrowheads and create various "trick" arrows along with a pack of normal ones. The bow had some electricity in it as well, which contained triggers to allow quick selection of a desired trick arrow and a detonation switch.

"I'll start you off with four kinds specialized of arrows, so it shouldn't be that hard to learn. Be careful with everything."

Clint provided many more arrows than she could carry, so she loaded the quiver and took as many extras as she could, leaving behind the rest. She hauled everything back outside, packing them onto Maximus' back.

"This isn't too much for you, is it?" she asked him. Maximus shook his head. "OK. Off we go then!"

* * *

><p>"With your power comes a great responsibility, Rapunzel. You know what is at stake," her father reminded her.<p>

"I know it's a trap, but we need to stop Gothel," Rapunzel asserted.

"Which is why I guess you want to send an entire army to Gothel's tower," Eugene worried.

"We're not sending all of them, just enough to take on anything she could have," the king assured, "She had gargoyles with her when she came here. Merida took them down single-handedly, but we're on Gothel's home land this time. We cannot expect them to fly away with such haste."

Merida entered the conference room through the back door, already having hid her new bow and quiver in the castle bedroom provided to her by the king.

"Hey Mer! You're back!" Rapunzel greeted her.

"I'm guessing we have a plan now?" she asked.

"We already got some of it figured out. Could we have some time alone?"

The king left with his servants and military advisors. Eugene stayed behind.

"We're gonna bring some help with us to fight off an army in case she throws one at us," Rapunzel continued, "As for fighting her I'm sure she'll try and block my magic again, which only takes away my hair. The thing I'm worried about is how much Gothel has figured out about my powers."

"Have you learned how to shoot light beams from your hands yet?"

"Whoa you can do that too?!" Eugene interjected.

"Actually, I have," Rapunzel gladly told them, "It's pretty much a muscle like everything else. I guess I needed a tough situation to discover it. Look, I've been digging around more, and I think I might know why Gothel couldn't stop me from doing it."

"So you believe me about having the sun in you?" Merida asked.

"Yeah. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rules about magic, but I think my hair comes from 'personal energy', which basically means it comes from within me. When I had my hair the first time that energy was the sun, but I lose it if my hair is cut. The only explanation is that ever since I was abducted I now have it in me all the time. I'm somehow absorbing sunlight like a plant, and it not only powers my hair but gives me all my other abilities along with it. That spell only blocked me from using magic, and I suppose everything else is more biological in nature. By the way, I had a surprise visit while you were gone."

"Who?"

"Anna, my cousin. She's a princess from a kingdom north of here called Arendelle. I don't how to say this, but she's got some power of her own and she knows Gothel is back. Oh and she used an alien spaceship to come down here."

"I told you she had powers," Eugene interrupted again.

"How?" Merida inquired.

"Beats me. I could hear her heart racing. She seemed pretty stressed out and only wanted to ask if we were doing okay. Apparently after some training, she knows she can see things before they happen, is superhumanly strong, fast, and agile, and has a bit of telekinesis. She also has a green beam sword that can cut through anything. She told me it was magic and just happened to find a working alien spaceship, but after everything I've learned I have trouble believing that."

"Guess we'll have to get her down here again to ask," Eugene suggested.

"Anyway, I told her we were doing just fine and she was okay with that. Now back to the plan. We still haven't completely decided on how to deal with Gothel directly, that's the tricky part."

"Well we don't know the full range of Gothel's magic, but if we need to we should be able to block her from using it like she did on you," Merida remarked, "We still don't know what she wants."

"Isn't it obvious now? She doesn't need my hair to live anymore but she wants revenge. She ran off when she saw my powers so she could prepare for me alone, which we'll have covered."

"What would satisfy her revenge? Killing you? By the way she attacked us here she wants more than that. If she wanted to kill you getting an entire army shouldn't be necessary. Let's face it: she probably wants to take over the kingdom, and getting you away from it would make sense after seeing your powers."

"She's kinda right ya know," Eugene seconded.

"Which is why we're only taking a portion of our army so we can still defend the place," Rapunzel followed.

"Could you convince you parents to put up some wards? It would make up for you being away at least," Merida reasoned.

"Guess we gotta get used to using some magic around here," Rapunzel sighed.

* * *

><p>A day and a half later they had all agreed on a plan. Rapunzel would appear to enter the vicinity of the tower alone while the accompanying army would wait behind and strike when it became necessary. Merida would take a different route and use stealth tactics to help them out. Unbeknownst to everyone but Rapunzel, Merida carried her high-tech quiver and bow rather than her old one. They were hoping to have a bit of a surprise.<p>

"In your positions," the general ordered everyone.

They all took various spots hiding behind trees and rocks, armed with crossbows and swords. Merida climbed to a high spot to gain a vantage point.

"Go ahead, your majesty."

Rapunzel strode out into the open, going right for the tower that housed her for eighteen straight years. Instead of climbing up through the entrance, she softly skipped towards the back and fired her hair towards the underside of the roof. With both hands holding on and her feet against the wall, she steadily shortened her hair and climbed up. She scoped out the tower for Gothel and didn't hear anything, so she climbed back down and gave a hand signal.

Right as she did, she saw a small red cloud vortex appear on the opposite side of the river. It then lowered itself to reveal Mother Gothel standing there, causing Corona's troops to quickly retreat back to their hiding spots.

"I guess I could have told you to come here alone, but what's the point. No one ever does," Gothel spoke.

She uttered a sorcerous phrase that called her gargoyle army in. Rapunzel shot her hair towards Gothel to try and stop her in the middle of it but it was magically repelled. Corona's troops came out of hiding and started firing at them with their crossbows.

"Oh no you don't!" Rapunzel yelled.

She tried to grab Gothel with hair again, which was again blocked and this time followed by a telekinetic flick backwards. She tumbled a few times before getting back up onto her feet. Having quickly recovered, she attempted a solar blast. That one connected and knocked Gothel backwards into a tree, so Rapunzel leaped high over the river for a closer position. Seeing Gothel caught off guard, she went for a knockout punch to try and end it early, but Gothel dodged and teleported away in the same fashion she arrived.

Gothel reappeared back on the other side of the river and unleashed a red lightning bolt from her palm in retaliation. It hit Rapunzel square in the chest, sending her seventy feet away.

"Yahh!"

The feeling of it was more like a small explosion rather than being struck by lightning. Rapunzel checked herself for a brief moment and only noticed minor burns. She picked herself up again and leaped onto the top of another tree. Gothel conjured and threw a ball of fire to inflame the tree Rapunzel was on. She had to jump off.

Now back on the ground, Rapunzel began moving so fast Gothel couldn't keep track of her. She rapidly cartwheeled, weaved, leaped, and whirled around evading various magical attacks awhile before she shot hair across the river. Pulling herself forward, she dove into a roll over to the other side right at Gothel. In one swift motion she grabbed Gothel as she sprang back up and flung her towards the canyon wall. She then lit her hands up for another solar blast. Mother Gothel had to be done.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Merida made sure not to give away her position too soon. She opened things up firing off sleeping gas arrows to try and slow down the gargoyles amidst all the commotion below. Instead of aiming to hit, she instead hit the detonation button on the bow to spray the gas as the arrows traveled through the air past the flying creatures. Inhaling the gas meant they would subsequently tumble to the ground and be left easy pickings for Corona's army. It surely was too easy for her.<p>

Gothel eventually noticed the mystery shooter that was Merida in the nick of time, so she sent some of the gargoyles on a circuitous route for a sneak attack seconds before Rapunzel executed the finishing combo. They shortly swarmed Merida from above and exploited her vulnerability in such a high and tight spot, snatching her to take her out of the picture. She was thrown through the front window of the tower.

"Merida!"

Rapunzel saw what happened, but had to stay on the ground. A dimensional portal suddenly opened up near the waterfall that let in a large, reptilian monster. Standing over half as tall as the tower, the giant lizard roared in hostility.

"Oh gosh."

"Take him down!" a soldier yelled.

Up in the tower, Merida hit a trip wire as she crashed in, causing a magical container of some sort to drop to the floor. It opened up to expel the Stabbinton Brothers.

"Well what a surprise," one of them pleasingly opened.

"I guess you were expecting the blonde and brunette one," Merida scoffed.

Merida first thought she was in trouble. The high tech in her bow and quiver couldn't get her out of close quarter situations. That wouldn't matter, as Merida got yet another flashback that would help her, though it only contained a short phrase.

_"Hand to hand combat training."_

Having dropped her bow, she blocked a punch from one of them to the outside and spun into a leg lock takedown by the head. She got up to engage the other one. He tried to grab her, but she sidestepped as she blocked with one arm, uppercut him with the other, and then finished him with a sweep of the legs.

"Not so tough after all, eh?"

But before Merida could leave, vines suddenly sprouted from beneath the floor and ensnared her. Gothel really did have a trap. _"I'm already getting tired of this," _she thought.

* * *

><p>Back outside the soldiers were having trouble trying to take down the creature with the weapons they had. Their arrows could pierce his skin but couldn't hurt him enough to sufficiently slow him down.<p>

As swords were drawn Rapunzel fired a high power solar blast, which again failed to hurt him much and barely made him flinch. The creature charged right back and went on to backhand away multiple numbers at once, including Rapunzel.

"Wahhh!"

Having only suffered superficial cuts and bruises, Rapunzel's durability was enough to allow her to get up after a few seconds. The giant lizard was ripping right through the soldiers, and she wanted to stop him for good. She wouldn't have time for that.

"Punz!"

Rapunzel could hear Merida's helplessness, so she ran towards the tower, jumped off the wall, and summoned her hair to swing in through the window. The creature noticed and charged after her. With little time, she immediately tossed both Stabbingtons away from Merida with her hair. However, she too would become trapped by the same vines.

"Oh great. Just great."

She couldn't break free before the tower was rammed into and separated it from its base. As her former home collapsed Rapunzel had no choice but to summon her hair to shield both herself and Merida. It wasn't enough to prevent them from getting knocked out.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes there was a little tie-in to another story of mine and minor Star Wars reference going on. It takes place in the same universe.**


	8. Following Their Fate

Rapunzel and Merida woke up to find themselves flat on the ground in some kind of dungeon. It definitely wasn't Corona's. Gothel had to have kidnapped them while they were knocked out after the tower went down. They saw they were still wearing what they had on during their skirmish. Merida still had Clint's gear and was far from running out of arrows.

"Got any clue where we are?" Merida croaked.

Rapunzel opened up her super senses.

"Nope, but it's creepy. I hear voices, but as far as I can tell we're as good as being in the middle of nowhere. I also smell a little blood."

"Blood?"

"I don't wanna find out. Let's just get outta here."

Rapunzel got up and went right for the bars. As soon as she touched the metal, she was magically blown backwards.

"What was _that_?" Rapunzel blurted.

Gothel promptly appeared in a vortex of red clouds right outside their dungeon cell.

"You're not going anywhere, darling. I have some…plans, and I would prefer both of you stay out of my way if you're not with me."

"Like what?"

Gothel let out a chuckle. "Ever since I was brought back I've realized using someone just to live forever wasn't practical. Now I think I can get something better, one that will grant me a wish for permanent life. Legend has called it the Nexus of Wonder, a great power that lies in the very center of the planet. I tried to take over your kingdom so I could start acquiring the resources to get it, but seeing what you can do I've decided to find another way. And I have found the place to start, right in the very establishment we are in.

"I will give you a choice, Rapunzel. Join me, and together with this power we will rid the land of all death and suffering. Together, we will bring order and end our little conflict."

"I'll never join you!"

"You're out of your mind!" Merida added.

"Well, then," Gothel answered, "If both of you still want to make me the bad guy, I guess I'll have to leave both of you here to rot for a very, very long time." She teleported out with those being her only words.

"Ughhh!"

"Calm down, Punz. We'll get ourselves a way out of here."

"Like how? You can't even touch the bars without getting an explosion to the face."

"At least we know what she wants now."

Rapunzel turned back to face Merida. "How you holding up?"

"Just a little hurt."

"I could heal you at least."

"Sure."

Rapunzel summoned her hair and softly wrapped it around Merida to heal everything she sustained from the tower collapse.

"Wisps!" Merida shot up.

As soon as she healed Merida, Rapunzel turned around to see floating little blue critters right outside the bars.

"Those were the things you were talking about?"

Several of them merged together and went right into the door's locks, magically opening it up and removing the enchantment.

"Well I guess we can leave now," Rapunzel relieved in a sing-song tone.

"We've got to follow them," Merida insisted.

"Mer!"

Rapunzel chased after Merida and followed the Wisps down the dimly lit dungeon corridors.

"How do you know they'll get us a safe way out?" Rapunzel questioned as she ran along.

"They never led me wrong before."

They were taken up a hidden staircase up to a second floor hall. They were not stopped until they stepped out onto an outdoor balcony.

"Wow."

The castle turned out to be located in a major coastal city, one that was many times larger than Corona. They were unfortunately only given a few moments to gaze at the night skyline in awe before two small dragons showed up and landed right next to them.

Rapunzel and Merida jolted backwards. The dragons surrendered and put their hands up. They then lowered back down and gave an affectionate look as the Wisps surrounded them.

"I think we're supposed to get on," Merida encouraged.

"Seriously?"

"They obviously don't want to hurt us. Do you want to get out of here or not?"

Neither of them knew what to make of the dragons. Both had blue and white scales, sharp teeth, spikey horns, and yellowish wings. Their outward appearance was intimidating, yet they displayed a sweet and calm demeanor, unlike the large one Merida faced all those years ago.

As soon as they were securely on the dragons' backs, they took off.

"Whoaaa!"

The creatures assuredly had a lot of thrust as they jumped off and flapped their wings to gain high altitude and reach very high speeds within a few seconds. Their passengers held on like scared children and put their heads down as they were subjected to massive g-forces at first. The intense feeling went down after they reached the clouds and leveled off.

"I'm actually liking this," Rapunzel admitted.

"Me too."

"Where do ya think they're taking us?"

"Somewhere important I hope."

* * *

><p>The trip would last about an hour before they dived back down and softly touched down in a familiar forest.<p>

"I recognize this place," Merida realized.

"No kidding. Those Wisps are for real."

"This forest, I know it by heart. It hasn't changed even after all this time."

"Well if that's the case, think your kingdom's still here?"

"I guess we're here to find out."

Merida led Rapunzel on the same path she would use to reach her kingdom. It wasn't a journey Merida hadn't seen before, until she came across a road.

"I'm guessing that wasn't here three centuries ago," Rapunzel noted.

Merida paused as she took in the experience of seeing something so major to her.

"Oy!"

Their silence was broken by an elderly man in a decelerating carriage.

"You two ladies lost?" he asked through the door window.

"Errrrr…yeah. You could say that," Merida replied, "Is there a place near here called DunBroch?"

"DunBroch? Why it's a major one! Why don't you both hop on? I'm going there myself."

"O-kay," Rapunzel hesitated.

The man opened the carriage door and welcomed them in.

"Hyahh!"

The carriage went back to moving again.

"So, what brings you two out here?" he asked.

Merida gave Rapunzel a little jerk. "We're uhhh…not really too sure. You're probably not gonna believe me if I told you."

"Ah don't worry about telling me. This land has seen plenty of supernatural things, sometimes good, sometimes bad."

They entered DunBroch sooner than expected, implying that it had grown much since Merida was gone. It was marked by a sign that read: "_Now Entering the Village and Kingdom of DunBroch"_.

"I'll let you two stay the night at a place I own here. You both look like you've had enough for the day."

* * *

><p>"Great heavens! Is that who I think it is?!"<p>

Rapunzel and Merida had to have gone unnoticed the entire night, because when they were out and about the next day, quite a few people in the village gave shocked looks. At some point, the kingdom's middle-aged ruler herself came out to see what the fuss was all about. Her mouth dropped as soon as she saw Merida.

"It can't be!" she uttered.

"Whoa whoa. Does everyone here know you?" Rapunzel gasped.

"Sure looks like it," Merida answered. She walked towards the queen. "If I am some kind of historical figure around here I can explain."

"What sorcery is this? Guards!"

A small group of royal guards came forward. One of them was armed with a magical item of some sort.

"Test her," the queen ordered him.

He placed his talisman in Merida's hand but nothing happened.

"Oh my. It's really you."

"In the flesh," Merida further declared.

"Come with me, both of you. You can explain everything when we get inside."

Merida handed the testing device back. The guards lowered their weapons and escorted the two into the castle with the queen. It certainly was a different castle than the one Merida knew and quite a sight to see. Right in the middle of a comparably modern village, part of the old castle stayed as a historical monument while the new one had been built and retrofitted right into it. The new castle was also unsurprisingly on par with Corona's, architecturally distinguishing itself from the old one in a multitude of ways.

They entered the castle and sat down at a round table to begin their conversation.

"So I'm obviously a big name around here. What am I famous for?" Merida began.

"Merida, you became one of the most influential people in the kingdom's history," the queen responded, "You must think it wasn't all that great of a deal back in your day, but past your effective demise DunBroch became a beacon of bravery and change. What you did was an immense act of sacrifice that none have matched since. Furthermore, you were one of the biggest reasons why we altered tradition not only for the sake of the kingdom's survival, but for the better. Some even go as far to say that you started a legacy of enlightenment. I know this must all be alarming for you to hear. Could you explain how you are sitting in front of me right now, in this very room?"

"That's a really complicated story we don't expect you to believe," Rapunzel interrupted.

"You can tell me. We've been used to a lot of magic and other unordinary things around here."

"It's not like that," Merida began, "I never really died. I survived being burned by that dragon. What happened after that though…"

Merida sighed. This was going to be a long one.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Over three centuries ago…<em>**

"You're not big enough, boy."

"But I want to fight! I have the experience!"

Merida could hear much shouting and arguing on the castle green. Both her parents were away discussing other important matters, and war was imminent.

"When was the last time you were on my side woman?!"

She had no choice but to try and calm everyone down. She was the only royalty out there, even though it was hard for others to think of her as a princess.

"Everyone will you please stop!" she yelled. Nothing happened. The people kept bickering until her loud words finally got them to pay attention and turn towards her. "Finally," she sighed.

"What good are we doing if we keep fighting among ourselves?" she continued, "You may have your differences, but we won't stand a chance against Monseri unless we come together. We already know of the terrible slaughter and destruction he and his armies have brought upon millions. Entire kingdoms, knowledge, and achievements have been destroyed and forgotten. Lives and families, lost. That will be our fate unless we choose to avenge their lives and fight as one. Look, I have been getting everyone here training just for this. We cannot afford to let all that mean nothing.

"Monseri wants nothing but conquest at any cost. He doesn't care who you are, so why should we? It doesn't matter if you are a woman, or even if you're an undersized man. Everyone gathered here can fight, and I see the bravery grow in all of you every day. Look at me. Did you ever think a princess would become what you see before you now?"

She paused to let everyone take that in.

"I changed fate once before and prevented a war from starting between you. And now I'm asking you to help me change it again. This kingdom has joined together before, and newcomers to the battlefield should not change that one bit. Fight for each other, for your families, for this kingdom. For DunBroch!"

"For DunBroch!"

Everyone there cheered and rejoiced after listening to what Merida had to say.

* * *

><p>"So Merida, you did it?" Elinor asked.<p>

"Yes, mum. Everyone is agreeing to fight."

"I knew you could," Fergus reassured.

"We still have a problem. I have word that our invaders will be bringing some magic with them," Elinor alerted them.

"Magic? In what form?"

"Creatures. Some far worse than Mor'du."

Merida sighed. "There's only one person here I know who can help us, and I don't know if she'll even be there when I go looking for her."

Right as she said that, Wisps entered the room where they were having their conversation in a speak-of-the-devil fashion. Merida went after them.

"Merida!" Elinor called out to her.

"That's how I found the witch last time! Maybe that's what this is!"

* * *

><p>"Come on, Angus! Faster!"<p>

The Wisps moved quickly enough to make Merida ride Angus. Whatever was their purpose this time, it had to be urgent. Eventually, the Wisps slowed down, and Angus screeched to a halt.

As she hoped, she was led directly to the witch's cottage. She had to be in business. Merida unsaddled and ran to her door to knock.

"Hello dear. What can I help you with today?" she greeted Merida.

"Our kingdom is facing an invasion. It won't be here unless you agree to help us."

"And why would I want to help you?"

"I know our enemies have magical creatures with them."

"Ah yes. You would know much about that. Well unfortunately there can be many different varieties of them and they can have very specific weaknesses. You can kill most the conventional way. Others will require much more. However, being me I have a very deep knowledge. I might be able to concoct a poison that can take down even the strongest of ones. No charge, by the way. It is a war after all and I want my business to stay here."

"Why thank you!"

"I must warn you though, I may only have enough just for you."

Merida sighed. If DunBroch was to face anything supernatural that couldn't easily be killed, she would have to go at it alone. "Just do it."


End file.
